Apollo & Luna

Confession

“What happened?” she asked as she pushed her daughter from her so she could reach out and dry her eyes with her hands. She ushered the young woman to a chair and started serving her breakfast.

Alicia glanced at the hall leading to her room, found it empty except for the drawer against the wall, and then turned her attention back to her mother.

She had to make sure the man was not able to hear her talk to her mother.

“That afternoon when I felt dizzy at the pen, I had this vision of a man in a suit. He was taken forcefully inside the car and was brought to the field near here.” Alicia turned her pleading doe eyes to her mother, asking for further understanding.

“I’m sorry mom. I know you told me not to use my powers, but the man was shot. One of the men who took him shot him at his chest. I knew he would die, and I just couldn’t leave him like that,” her voice broke and her mother wrapped her arms around her, offering comfort.

“Mom, there was so much blood. He was losing blood and I saw him lying there in my vision. Knowing he’s just near here, I felt I had to save him. I knew I had to save him. He was barely alive when I came there,” she whispered as she recalled how she found the stranger.

“Mom he was dying but I can’t let him go just like that…”

“Alice…” She hugged her daughter tight as she let her cry.

Deep inside, she was weeping for her child too. How Alicia must have suffered with her vision and was forced not to act upon them because of her. This act of defiance must be because her daughter had been agonizing enough, seen enough, heard enough.

“It’s alright Alice. Hush now…” she soothed her, hoping that by holding her like this, she could erase the scars her daughter had in her soul.

For seventeen years, Alicia had kept her promise to her not to use her powers. But as a mother, she knew that in those years, there had been plenty of times when Alicia had been reduced to breaking point just to keep her word. How much had she anguished!

When Alicia calmed down, the loving mother wiped her child’s pitiful tears with her shirt and patted her cheeks. Her child’s cheeks, nose and eyes had become puffy. She found her cute.

“You stop crying now before your guest comes here Alice,” she teased.  

“You wouldn’t want to scare our only guest away with your ugly crying face right? He’s the only one who’d eat with us after all,” she added and almost kicked herself for her words. She knew her daughter’s feeling bad about the people treating them badly and avoiding them like the plague.  

“It’s okay mom,” she murmured just as the said guest entered the kitchen.

He was huge, the mother thought as she saw him. He was wearing her husband’s old, shabby clothing, but as soon as she saw him, she knew he was not of their class. The way the man stood, the way he walked, it was obvious that he was a man of the world, far, far above them.

“Good morning,” the stranger greeted and the old lady immediately gave him a reassuring smile.

“Come sit,” she invited as she ushered him to a chair next to her daughter.

“Alice, give our guest a plate,” she told her child who obeyed her wordlessly.

“What’s your name?” the elder asked the man lightly and the man glanced at Alicia who was ignoring him before he answered.

“Yann Ma’am. My name’s Yann Bouchard,” he answered politely as he sat. She caught him looking at Alicia again, but her daughter continued to ignore him and she almost chuckled.

It seemed the young man hadn’t gotten used to her daughter’s beauty yet. Her daughter on the other hand had already forgotten how to have a guest in the house and didn’t know how to treat the man she saved.

“So where are you from?” she asked conversationally as she served him food.

“Seoul,” he answered as he took a bite and she smiled when his eyes widened.

“This is good!” he said and she saw her daughter smile at the corner of her eyes but still didn’t speak.

“Thank you,” the elder was pleased. Still, saying the man was from Seoul was strange.

“You don’t look Korean,” she commented, and the man called Yann shook his head.

“I’m one hundred percent French Maám,”he answered politely, and he explained how he had lost his mother at a very young age.

His father remarried when he was older, and the new mother was Korean. Ten years ago, after he had an accident, his parents adopted a French girl so he’d have a sibling. Sadly, just more than a year after, his parents both died from a vehicular accident, so his stepmother’s brother took them in even if he wasn’t technically related to them by blood. He was twenty, and his sister was twelve when they started to call Korea their home.

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” she said.

It wasn’t her intention to pry, or to ask much too personal questions.

“It’s alright,” he answered. He didn’t remember his parents anyway, and his uncle Choi Junki took good care of them like they were his own.

An awkward silence hung between the three of them afterwards as Alicia still refused to join the conversation. Sighing, the old lady decided to engage their guest on small talk until she noticed the young man’s hesitant expressions and she knew. She knew that the young man knew about her and Alicia.

Well, it wasn’t really that hard to realize. She had actually seen him standing awkwardly outside while they talked earlier after all.

He must have been totally confused about the truth.